July 9, 2001 at 11 PM

Ça plane pour moi

“A Quebec official in Brussels, who asked not to be identified, said that when Quebecers suggest to French-speaking Belgians the proper French terms as used in Quebec, ‘they look at us as if we were from another planet.’”

Which I suppose is better than looking at us as if we were from Hamburg. Or worse, that we eat people from Hamburg, which is one’s first inference upon reading hambourgeois on restaurant menus in Quebec. The word transliterally means ‘one from Hamburg’ which is naturally what we all think of while patronizing that famous German fast-food joint, Burgerkönig.

Still, while I snicker given the chance, I’m not sure which is more the cliché: the time-honoured tradition of Quebec politicians kowtowing to the utility of English while overseas, or the Montreal Gazette taking every single last opportunity to embarrass those same politicians who preach so differently while at home.